Creating Confucian Authority

The Field of Ritual Learning in Early China to 9 CE

Robert L. Chard (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

232 Seiten

2021
Brill (Verlag)
9789004461918 (ISBN)

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This book presents extensive primary sources to reveal how Confucians in Early China parlay their knowledge of ritual into political power, from the ancient aristocratic culture of the Spring and Autumn era to the state religion of the Han empire.

Ritual Learning is a key driver in the cultural dominance of Confucianism. In early China, Confucian officials derive political influence from the sub-discipline of ritual. Imperial regimes establish legitimacy through their state religion, headed by sacrifices to ancestors and to deities of Heaven and Earth. Ritual Learning allows Confucian-educated officials to assert control over these cults, and reshape dynastic legitimacy according to their own design, claimed to derive from the sage kings of antiquity. Confucianism is not just a philosophical and intellectual tradition. Through its ritual expertise, it has cultural and political power, like that of a religion, allowing it to perpetuate itself successfully over time, even in contemporary China.

Robert L. Chard, PhD (1990, University of California, Berkeley) is University Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Anne’s College. He has published on the visible culture of Confucianism in China and Japan.

Contents

Preface

1 Introduction

1 A Prologue – The Case of Shusun Tong 叔孫通

2 Ritual and Ritual Learning

2 The Golden Age of Ritual: The World of the Zuo zhuan, and the Analects (Lun yu) on Confucius

1 The Western Zhou

2 The Spring and Autumn Period and the World of the Zuo zhuan

3 Ritual Learning in the Lun yu (Analects)

3 The Ritual Culture of the Ru – Ritual Learning in the Warring States and Early Han

1 The Ru (“Confucians”)

2 Pre-Han Precursors of the Ritual Canon Li 禮

3 Pre-Han Antecedents of the Li ji 禮記

4 Non-textual Masters of li – Shusun Tong 叔孫通 and His Successors in the Early Han Court

4 The “Victory” of Ritual Learning – Western Han

1 Early Western Han – Emperors Wen and Jing (180–141 BCE)

2 Emperor Wu (141–87 BCE)

3 Texts on Ritual Learning

4 Old vs New – Ritual Learning in Late Western Han

5 Conclusion and Final Arguments

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	18.06.2021
Reihe/Serie	Sinica Leidensia ; 152
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	515 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
ISBN-13	9789004461918 / 9789004461918
Zustand	Neuware